On a Mission to Stir the Musical Melting Pot

Dear Readers,

                Since my blog has been up and running, I have added a few bands that I believe to be relevant and paramount as content contributing to the purpose of this site.  Looking over my blog, I realize that, although there’s a small description under the page title, it doesn’t provide much detail into the who, what, where, why and how of my website.  I’ll get into that in a bit.  First, I’d like to set the scene by answering the simplest question: why am I doing this blog?  I’ll tell you why:

                I grew up in Northeast Mississippi on the outskirts of the Mississippi Delta.  For those of you that don’t know, the Mississippi Delta covers Memphis, Tennessee in the North all the way down to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the South.  This area is extremely famous for its distinct style of blues: the Delta blues.  It’s one of the earliest styles of blues and it eventually spread across the country giving birth to other blues variations: Chicago and Detroit blues.  As a given, growing up in the South exposed me to country music and Southern rap as well.  Needless to say, I grew up in a musically rich environment.  As a product of that environment, I decided that I would like to be a musician too.  I started playing instruments at the age of fifteen and taught myself to play the guitar, bass, drums and piano.  A few years later, I started dabbling in singing.  I, myself, am no professional.  I do not have false hopes of fame and grandeur.  I play for fun.  And I, as well as most artists, do not like to be strictly associated to one genre of music or another.  Therefore, I explore my musical tastes on a constant basis as a mean of being diverse and exposing myself to a wide range of influences.  I think it is very evident, if you’ve heard my original music before, when I started to branch out musically.  At fifteen, my music sounded like a rebellious teens attempt at emulating Nirvana and Metallica in an attempt to take a popular style of music and brand it as my own.  For years, I rocked power chords and variations of such as an easy, uncomplicated method of playing loud and hard.  However, as I progressed towards twenty years old, there was a distinct transition into a more soulful, bluesy meets country sound to my music as I moved past the insecure life of teenage rebel.  Today, my music is more of a melting pot than ever.  If I were to record an album with the songs I’ve written, I honestly think it would be next to impossible to assign a genre.  And I like that.  I am never satisfied with me, or anyone else for that matter, be labeled as one-dimensional.  There are many sides to a person, and I believe music helps us explore those sides.  As I stated earlier, I grew up around country, but I didn’t really listen to it.  A lot of people make fun of country and, being unsecure, I refused to like something that was made fun of.  I’m glad I grew out of that.  Worrying about what other people think drives us to lie to ourselves or hide what we’re really like.  In the spirit of not caring, I have found many different kinds of music that I genuinely enjoy, though they may not be the popular choice…yet!  And now, I have this blog.  I want this blog to serve as a single outlet to all musical tastes with no boundaries between genres.  I want to share my influences with you.

Finally, as promised, my blog’s who, what, where, why and how:

Who?  Everyone.  My blog isn’t exclusive to one genre of music.
What?  A single outlet of influential artists.
Where?  The world over.  I think artists from different parts of the world each bring something to the table and can all learn from each other.
Why?  I would like to share my influences.  A lot of times, you don’t know all the types of music you like until you hear it.
How?  The blog itself.  Subscribing to the blog means you can receive a constant feed no matter where you are.

Also, my comment boxes, like and dislike buttons and followers list are looking a little lonely.  Show some love!

Matt